What I’d Like to Hear at Ad:tech NYC

I’m at the airport about to fly down to NYC for tomorrow’s Ad:tech Conference in New York. I’ve got my agenda spread out before me, highlighted and annotated, and I’m coming to the show with a number of questions:

For the Ad Networks and Exchanges Workshops (And for the surprisingly large number of ad networks exhibiting): Once you’ve said you have a great site list, that you’re transparent and that you’ve got a black box process that helps you optimize better, what else can you say? I think networks have a permanent spot in the landscape, but there will be fewer — not more — of them as we go forward. How will you all add value to the market instead of just reducing costs. Winning the race to the bottom just means you crash first.

For the Social Media Big Picture and Technorati Workshops:Isn’t it time to finally divorce the concepts of social media and advertising? This is not to say that brands won’t leverage social tools and environments; they most certainly will. But after trying to shoehorn advertising into social environments that won’t accept it (and social mediaSocial into advertising budgets that can’t swallow it) isn’t it time to create a distinct line item in the marketing budget? is much bigger than advertising will ever allow it to be.

For the Premium Content and Tablets Workshops: Where is the genuine consumer demand for tablet versions of magazines? I understand why magazine companies want the phenomenon to become a trend, but the whole thing is starting to look more than a little manufactured. I love my iPad and I’ve sampled several tablet magazines which I’ve just as quickly learned to live without. I don’t think I’m alone. Is there really a there there?

For Keynote Speaker Steven Berlin Johnson, Author of “Where Good Ideas Come From:”What is the “Adjacent Possible” that’s presenting itself to web users and marketers right now? For those who haven’t yet read the book, it’s brilliant. The “Adjacent Possible” is that technical or social change that allows a whole new set of innovation to happen. The adoption of flash based video was the “Adjacent Possible” that enabled the creation of You Tube. So Steven: What door is opening right now?

For the Digital Dialog Workshop (and every session that invokes “customer or consumer relationships:” To the degree that you’re generating or leveraging consumer data, what is the explicit value exchange for the consumer? How are you making the consumer’s life or experience better in exchange for the data or targeting you’ll profit from?As I said on stage at iMedia last May, I think that assuming we have some inherent right to target or traffic in data is a mistake, and that we have to start thinking of it as a trade, not a harvest.

For the Ad Innovation Breakout (“The Plumbing is Ready: Now Comes the Poetry:”) Is this to be the golden age of advertising, or the end of advertising as we know it? I’m worried that creative thinking from advertising’s past — storytelling — may not be the answer at all. Isn’t this maybe the age of consumer anthropology rather than some kind of renaissance for ad creative? It’s more than semantic: this is the battle for what marketing on the web will really be about. (And for the record, yes, the plumbing is ready.

I’ll be attending all of these sessions and more and I’d genuinely love to hear answers to these questions. Do you have questions — or answers — of your own?

If the situation/occasion presents itself can you explore/delve into the ongoing issue of agency/client compensation for full service digital communication services?

I bring this up because a recent column cited the latest/recent 4 A’s compensation survey reports indicating it costs a digital agency 30% of the digital media to service a digital campaign ( media/creative et al)

“…… a recent study by AAAA found that the cost of servicing digital campaigns averages 30 percent of an agency’s media cost, as opposed to two percent for television buys.”””

If his 4 A’s study is cited accurately, are clients paying this percentage? If not what is the real percentage encountered out there? what should it be…..You may detect a bit frustration ….but clients are asking for integrated/holistic thinking and implementation but getting compensated for this is still difficult….this is one of the issues that is a barrier to your taking advantages of the “internet tubes” you discussed in your recent column….there are other issues you know all too well but unfortunately the issue of “Digital pennies vs analog dollars” still drive our vision

There is a there there (with paid apps). The iPad has the highest customer satisfaction ratings ever (for any product), more tablets are rushing to market… Thousands of great apps to explore, buy and use (just like a great magazine stand has hundreds to choose from). Louis Rossetto and Jane Melcalf didn’t want to start Wired as a print magazine in 1993; they wanted it to be like an iPad app (and Wired produces a great one now)…

While you’re at AdTech, check out the AppExchange in the main expo area; there will be 5 min demos from dozens of app developers.

Mobile is already a billion dollar line for Google; there will be many more companies crossing that revenue milestone — it’s easy to imagine apps becoming more important to companies than their main website (i.e. Opentable); and easier to imagine an app outselling a printed magazine or newspaper.

Good question. Yes, the AAAAs report is correct. Online buying, when done correctly, is highly complex and difficult to execute. One of the biggest reasons agencies are pushing to move to exchange-based audience buying is because it’s “easy”. Buying contextually relevant site direct inventory is hard to do even though it’s a better buy and the right thing to do for the clients.

So, I pose a follow up question for the industry: instead of trying to get clients to pay more for digital services, why aren’t we laser focused on streamlining the process between buyers and sellers through software that eliminates the majority of the low-value, transactional work of most digital planning and buying teams and allow those people to focus on important, valuable and highly strategic work.

In the current “cost plus” agency pricing model, where is the incentive for agencies to implement software to increase efficiency? There isn’t. Agencies will need to find a way to, once again, start charging premiums for their “ideas” and their advice versus the number of bodies or hours working on an account. The current compensation model is a disincentive to focus on extracting cost and time out of the process.

[…] From his blog, Doug Weaver writes what he'd like to hear during at this week's ad:tech show in New York City. He offer this guidance to ad networks, "How will you all add value to the market instead of just reducing costs. Winning the race to the bottom just means you crash first." Read more. […]

The point I was raising was more narrow than the ones you cover here so well. I think that most magazines and newspapers are going through what we used to call “the shovelware phase” when it comes to how they visualize apps. Too big, too clunky, and not very imaginative in terms of user experience. I’m challenging them to do better.

My question is that if this is/has been the year of mobile then is next year the year of connected TV. Does the consumer embrace it, will it become user friendly and how will advertisers connect to consumers through it.

Great points you’ll adress (intentionally misspelled) and I’d love to read what you hear. Please keep us posted. Also, thanks for the book suggestion, I bought it on my Kindle and can hardly put it down long enough to thank you, but felt I should. I am truly enjoying the read!

A side note. I’ve been working on a project called Adovation that I’d like to show you and get your thoughts. The model is based on the premise that “advertising” as we know it is basically a 19th century invention being exposed by 21st century technology and proven largely ineffectual online. Selling ad space and “story telling” isn’t the answer as you suggest, gaining consumer access is! As Mark Zuckerberg said, “pushing out your message isn’t enough anymore” and click-thru rates and conversions prove his point. The future is in pull marketing and my model creates a consumer utility that’s private, automated and rewarding and at the same time makes “advertising” truly interactive and engaging for the businesses that are paying for it. I think, based on what you’ve written and your suggested read, you’ll not only grasp what I’m trying to build but will appreciate the “poety” designed for the “plumbing.” Your two cents, according to Bill Peck, would be invaluable and I welcome the opportunity to share it with you!

One question for you about the marriage of advertising and social networking.

Do you have a problem with a brand marketer putting a Facebook App inside a rich media display ad unit and using behavioral targeting to get that app in front of millions of people who might find it valuable or relevant?

Branded social networking is the new brand website, only better. But, we still have the challenge of scaling the audience to an app just like we did with scaling an audience to a brand web page. We don’t ONLY want to build great marketing applications that align with social networking and then HOPE the audience grows virally. We want a scalable and repeatable foundation that brings more certainty to these initiatives – distribution inside ad units is the way to get the latter.